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If everyone were a hermaphodite there would be no gender discrimination! And right now, MEN are more discrinated not women!

MEN get gentally mutilated, molested and tortured at birth by some pedophiles hiding behind a medical degree, robbed of the most sensitive part of ther body, the foreskin whereas women enjoy whole bodies!

MEN get conscripted, forced to go through punishing physical and psychological training, and risk their lives or go to jail whereas women are free to get on with thei lives!

During a divorce the woman gets the child and the house whereas the man is thrown out on the street!

Men endure hasher penalties like corporal punishment whereas women don’t and vey few sympathy is iven to male victims!

Oh, dear, dear me. Yes, it’s true that men suffer some gender-specific constraints. It’s also true that women suffer gender-specific constraints. Who gets a better deal? That’s really hard to answer, because so many aspects of “the deal” are internalized. A lot of men kill themselves through idiotic behavior in their youth. Is that because they’re idiots or because they’re responding to pressures to excel? I don’t know. Rather than try to set up some grand accounting system for “who’s got it better”, I think that the best we can do is identify specific unjustifiable constraints and eliminate those. It’s obvious, for example, that women are not being integrated into science as smoothly as they should be. So let’s tackle that. It’s obvious that women aren’t getting equal pay for equal work; let’s tackle that. Can anybody cite a good example of men getting a raw deal? I can think of a few minor problems, but nothing really jumps out at me as strongly as the problems that women face. Yes, men face severe problems, but they’re not so externally imposed as the problems that women face.

There are tons of these. And they’re all fantastic. If you’re really in for a shocker, check out the WWII era Superman and his uh… dislike for the Japanese.

There’s also quite a few advertisements for boardgames. The one that jumps out at me the most is the one where a father and son are playing the game, while in the distant background you can make out the wife/daughter doing the dishes.

Sigh @ Quasar,
You know, I’m an American-born heterosexual white male between the ages of 25 and 50. You know who life is easier for than just about any other group? That group above. (if you throw “Christian” into the mix, which I’m not, then all the more so!) I have benefited from being in that group. I don’t have to worry about getting less pay than my coworkers for the exact same work. I don’t have to worry about being beaten up because of who I love. I’m not forced to let my husband rape me without any legal recourse. And on and on and on…

You did bring up some legitimate instances where, as Erasmussimo mentioned, males face gender-specific targeting. I’ll grant you that much. And when it happens, it’s wrong. But if you just plucked a random male and a random female from the population of the world, you’re almost guaranteed to find the woman suffering from a HELL of a lot more gender-specific discrimination or abuse than the man.

Just to play the Devil’s Advocate for rational debate and conversation, Patrick, while the ease of being middle class, white and male does allow the individual to adapt and avoid many social ills, there is also a a great deal of subtle pressure involved.

Culturally many of the above archetype have no real identity, from a very early age they are told to be the breadwinner of the family. There is an expectation that they will succeed easily and naturally, so if they fail then they fall that much harder. Meanwhile, these types are frequently mocked simply because they’re the easiest targets for it and however we cannot mock back in turn. See white male comedians making fun of a racial group not their own or using specific words that immediately ostracize them from public eye. Granted, a great many of these things are our heritage’s just desserts for centuries of oppression and the impact of the shift is likely hitting us harder because of that. Men born 20-30 years ago, even if from a liberal family and upbringing, are told that it is -their- fault that women are oppressed, black people are profiled and so on. Heap enough blame and stress on their shoulders and they’re bound to lash out.

(As a disclaimer I in no way support gender/racial discrimination or the superiority of one gender/race over another)

I won’t get into the ‘white’, ‘black’, etc issues…as this was titled “I’m glad I’m a boy, I’m glad I’m a girl”…not “I’m glad I’m black, I’m glad I’m white”. Although Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh’s immature rantings truly make white men look like pathetic little idiots..and trust me, I am not saying that white men are pathetic little idiots, but you guys need to tell Cheney to take Rush on a hunting trip and see who comes back walking.
The first thing I can honestly say, having been in corporate america for “too long”…men are very, very insecure. I honestly find that women are much better at managing people…they may not be the best executives, but they sure as hell are good at managing people. Of all the people I have had to report to, with the exception of one case, the women were the best managers I had…If I showed myself capable, they simply stood back and let me know that if i needed anything, they were there. Men on the other hand, if they start to see you as a threat, begin to undermine you, even though you do not threaten their position in any way whatsoever.
I’ve been one of the ‘popular’ men all my life — athlete, musician, over-schiever. Hence I never really associated with those who were not ‘popular’..not because I chose to, just that when you spend most of your time practicing and playing or performing, or studying, you don’t have time. However, corporate america is full of the ‘average’ people..and i in no way look down on anyone. However, in being amongst these corporate types, I sense massive insecurities…i have come to conclude that the vast majority of men are indeed very insecure in their manhood and quite weak minded.
Which brings me to my point. Women..listen, you do not need this B.S. feminist movement. I miss it when women were feminine..when they had the sexy walk, the sexy look, the sexy moves. Now women are becoming too masculine and men too feminine…gender reversal…NO GOOD. Women, you have solid intelligence, just learn to use it…learn not to be too emotional all the time and make rational decisions at times. A lot of you (women) are indeed smarter than men (more women obtain grad degrees than men). A lot of you (women) are more capable than men at many things (BUT PLEASE LEAVE SPORTS TO US..OKAY, I DON’T WANT TO PLAY SOCCER OR FOOTBALL OR BASKETBALL WITH A WOMAN; ALSO LEAVE FIGHTING WARS TO US..DO ME THAT FAVOR). Women are succesful entrepreneurs, succesful intellectuals, pilots (I knew a 22 year old girl who flew corporate jets..she was the captain). SO you can do whatever men can do…BUT, BE WOMEN, AND LET US BE MEN. AND TOSS THIS DUMB FEMINIST AGENDA (WHICH ONLY CREATES ANIMOSITY BETWEEN THE SEXES, AND ONLY STRIVES TO DENIGRADE WOMEN) OUT THE WINDOW…AND PLEASE BE SEXY AGAIN AND BE FEMININE AGAIN..I REALLY MISS THAT.

Many of the examples that Quasar mentions are true; unfortunately he wraps them up in an irrational conclusion.

These types of debates tend to devolve into the form “but men have to face X”, “but women have to face Y”, and both sides talk past each other in order to win the competition.

The fact is that both men and women face challenges and discrimination particular to their sex (setting aside for the moment the question of sexuality itself). Rather than trying to outdo each other with complaints, if we all tried to understand each side’s challenges for what they are, we might actually progress on both fronts.

BUT, BE WOMEN, AND LET US BE MEN. AND TOSS THIS DUMB FEMINIST AGENDA (WHICH ONLY CREATES ANIMOSITY BETWEEN THE SEXES, AND ONLY STRIVES TO DENIGRADE WOMEN) OUT THE WINDOW…AND PLEASE BE SEXY AGAIN AND BE FEMININE AGAIN..I REALLY MISS THAT.

Yeah, I’m sure you do miss that: women taking care of everyfuckingthing that has to do with cleaning up after you, taking care of your children, taking care of your house, and being an appropriate fuck receptacle for you, thus leaving you time to drink beer, watch teevee, and pick your dumbfuck ass. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

Both men and women have been historically limited and discriminated against by gender roles. The protector/provider role has led to systematic discrimination against men in child custody, military conscription, domestic violence policies, criminal sentencing, forced labor laws, public health policies, public benefits, genital intactment laws, paternity laws, exclusion from nursing schools, dating expectations, and more. Men today make 80-90% of job deaths, homeless adults, prisoners and suicide deaths, and the majority of dropouts, while they die younger than women and have higher death rates for all ten leading causes of death. Warren Farrell, Ph.D., “The Myth of Male Power; Why Men Are the Disposable Sex.” Below is a summary of men’s rights issues, followed by links to articles on the growing, global men’s rights movement worldwide.

FATHERS

“As late as 1971, the Minnesota State Bar Association’s handbook advised lawyers and judges that “except in very rare cases, the father should not have custody of the minor children. He is usually unqualified psychologically and emotionally.” Time Magazine, 11 November 2003, “Father Makes Two” by Margot Roosevelt. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101011119-183968,00.html

Today, the explicit discriminatory language has been removed from the law, but fathers are still systematically discriminated against in family courts. Dads usually ask for 50% custody while moms ask for and usually get 80% custody. Fathers are relegated to visitors and must pay high child support with hardly any enforcement of their parenting time. False accusations are rarely prosecuted and are often used to gain an upper hand in divorce and custody. See, Sanford Braver, Ph.D., “Divorced Dads; Shattering the Myths.” See also, “Cynthia McNeeley, “Lagging Behind the Times, Parenthood, Custody and Gender Bias in the Family Court,” http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/downloads/254/mcneely.pdf

An Urban Institute study entitled “What About the Dads?” found that CPS case workers attempted to contact fathers of children at risk in their mothers care only a little over half the time. That was true even though they knew the father’s identity in 86% of cases.

The American Journal of Public Health has declared that men are in a silent health crisis. They die younger than women and have higher death rates for all ten leading causes of death, and are affected by almost every chronic illness more than women. They’re more likely to have mental disabilities but less likely to be treated for them. Men make 80-90% of homeless adults, prisoners, occupational deaths and suicide deaths. They make the majority of dropouts and special education students, and 14% of them are diagnosed with ADD. There are 7 federal offices of women’s health and similar offices at every level of government but no offices of men’s health except one in Georgia. http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/library/TopCausesDeath2000.pdf For decades, our government spent far more on prostate cancer than breast cancer. http://www3.cancer.gov/public/factbk97/varican.htm

This confirms what previous studies have found, which is that men get higher sentences than women for the same crime even when all other factors are equal (age, race, priors, family situation, etc.), and that “gender differences, favoring women, are more often found than race differences, favoring whites.” (Crime and Delinquency, 1989, v 35, pp 136-168.)

The gender of the victim matters as well. A drunk driver will receive an average of a 3-year higher sentence for killing a female than for killing a male (compared to a 2-year higher sentence for killing a white instead of a black). (“Unconventional Wisdom,” Washington Post, Sept. 7, 2000.) Researchers Edward Glaeser (Harvard) and Bruce Sacerdote (Dartmouth) examined 2,800 homicide cases randomly drawn from 33 urban counties by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and found killing a female instead of a male increased sentences by 40.6% (compared to 26.8% for killing a white instead of a black).

Male victims of domestic violence are systematically neglected, stigmatized, and denied outreach and services. But they are not rare at all. They’re less likely to report it, which makes crime data unreliable. Virtually all sociological survey data consistently shows women initiate domestic violence at least as often as men and that men suffer one-third of injuries. http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm

The federal Violence Against Women Act, though mostly gender-neutral, has some provisions that expressly discriminate against men, such as the entire Native American section that excludes American Indian men. Even the title itself stigmatizes and downplays the seriousness of male victims. We don’t have a “Men’s Occupational Safety and Health Act” just because 92% of occupational deaths happen to men. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t04.htm

Men are also frequently victims of “sexual coercion” by women as well as by other men. (Sexuality and Culture, Summer 2000.) According to a May 2008 study by the University of New Hampshire, 28% of college women and 11% of college men experienced unwanted sexual contact and the perpetrator was a member of the opposite sex 98% of the time for girls and 91% of the time for boys. See Table 1 at http://www.unh.edu/news/docs/2006unwantedsexualexperiences.pdf

The U.S. Air Force study found 60% of rape accusations were false and the most common reasons for false rape accusations were: (1) spite or revenge; (2) feelings of guilt or shame; or, (3) to cover up an affair. Mental illness also played a role. McDowell, Charles P., Ph.D. “False Allegations.” Forensic Science Digest, (publication of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations), Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.
But false accusations are not studied enough because it’s politically incorrect to talk about. Meanwhile the names of the accusers are often protected while the names of the accused are not.

MILITARY CONSCRIPTION

Males throughout the world are forced to fight wars, often at very young ages, while women are exempt. In the U.S., only males must register by the age of 18, and a large percentage of them have been drafted before they were even old enough to vote. The Vietnam Memorial has 58,000 male names and 8 female names. Women leaders have supported or declared wars, and women in the population have supported wars at almost the same rate men have. For example, 76% of women and 86% of men supported the U.S. military attack in Kuwait and Iraq during the Gulf War. During the White Feather Campaign in England, women gave a white feather to men who refused to fight in WWI, to humiliate them and as a sign of their unmanliness.

The “pay gap” is based on average yearly incomes but it does not account for overtime (about 90% male), type of work or other important factors that make the gap disappear. See Prof. June O’Neill, Ph.D. (former director of Congressional Budget Office), “The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000,” American Economic Review, 5/03.

In “Why Men Earn More, Warren Farrell, Ph.D. shows that there are 25 career/life choices men and women make (hours, commute times) that lead to men earning more and women having more balanced lives, and that men in surveys prioritize money while women prioritize flexibility, shorter hours, shorter commutes, less physical risk and other factors conducive to their choice to be primary parents, an option men still largely don’t have.

A University of Michigan study found women work an average of 11 hours more housework per week more than men while men an average of 14 hours per week more than women outside the home.
For more, read the international bestseller, “The Myth of Male Power; Why Men Are the Disposable Sex” by Warren Farrell, Ph.D.

GENITAL INTACMENT

The male foreskin is a highly-functioning sexual organ, not just a piece of skin. In a new study published in the British Journal of Urology International, scientists used fine-touch medical instruments on the male penis found that male circumcision removes the most sensitive part of the penis. (Morris L. Sorrells, James L. Snyder, Mark D. Reiss, Christopher Eden, Marilyn F. Milos, Norma Wilcox, Robert S. Van Howe, “Fine-touch pressure thresholds in the adult penis,” British Journal of Urology International, v. 99, issue 4, p. 864, April 2007.) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990302063210.htm The full study is posted athttp://www.nocirc.org/touch-test/bju_6685.pdf

Prior studies on this issue – which had mixed results – were unreliable because they were based upon self-reports of men who were either circumcised as adults for medical purposes or were circumcised as children and could not compare the difference. One of the study’s authors, Dr. Robert Van Howe, explains that the male foreskin is concentrated with high-sensory nerve endings that are only found in our eyelids, lips and fingertips.

The male foreskin is also gynecologically equivalent to the removal of the clitoral hood, one of three forms of female circumcision that is banned by international and human rights laws. See Darby, R. and Svoboda, J. S., ‘A rose by any other name?; rethinking the similarities and differences between male and female genital cutting,’ Medical Anthropology Quarterly (2007), Vol. 21, Issue 3, pp. 301-323.

Yet infant male circumcision is still routinely practiced even though the American Board of Pediatrics has said there is no medical purpose for routine infant circumcision.

To ComradePhysioProf
No, I do not want a slave for a wife. No I do not need a woman to clean up after me. No I do not want a woman to be a breeder for my off-spring. No I do not want a woman whom I simply F*&k. No i do not watch TV or drink beer.
As a matter of fact let me describe the kind of women I am attracted to: Women wo have ambition (beyond being what you described); women who KNOW (not think but KNOW) that they can accomplish anything they PUT THEIR MINDS to…and KNOW that they do not need to have the playing field lowered for them to compete, but know that they have all the capabilities IF NOT MORE than any man to excel.
I want a woman who does not NEED a man to complete her, but needs a man to complement her…such that the two are CO-DEPENDENT, and achieve SYNERGIES.
I want a woman who takes pride in herself, and goes for what she wants. A woman who knows that there is more to herself than pretty looks, that she has a brain and CAN USE it if she so chooses.
I want a woman who understands that she does not have to do what men do; she does not have to imitate men, to be succesful or to be a winner.
I want a woman who can be all of that, and still be FEMININE.
See, what I have found, is that women are attracted to that which they find repulsive..which is quite irrational. I have found that women seek men who will denigrade them, and make them feel like shit. Which is illogical. That is what I have found. Maybe you can enlighten me, and let me know why women choose what I consider LOSER MEN..those men that will seek you to be their little domestice slave, or F%^K RECEPTACLE….those men that need you to be a breeder; those men that need you to be their mother, those men that have no sense of responsibility or accountability…WHy are you women drawn to such men? ENLIGHTEN ME.

By the art work, it looks more like a 60’s holdover from the 50’s. But that’s an eyeball sort of thing.

Still, even at a 1970 creation date … remember that it wasn’t until 1972 that title IX passed. Cheerleader really was it for girls athletically in 1970, and the cheerleading of that day was not the athletic business it is these days. Even at Olympic level, the longest race in the 1968 Olympics for women was 800m (half a mile). 1972 extended that to 1500 m (not even a mile). That remained longest until 1984.

Different insight to the time period you’re looking at with late 60s to 1970: I was leafing through a mid-60s almanac. For their photos of important events of the year, they included a picture of two white women freshmen and one black woman freshman. Caption wasn’t about finally integrating the campus. It was about pretty girls being on campus. (Awfully progressive for the date — it was before ‘black is beautiful’.)

My wife (a successful professional in her field) and I (ditto in mine) sometimes compare notes about problems faced by gender. The conclusion we agree on strongly is that stereotypes screw everybody. Doesn’t matter if it’s something you might think is positive, like ‘boys fix things.’ What happens to the boy (like, say, me at that age) who can’t fix things? Or doesn’t want to be a President, or even doctor (when I was graduating high school I got tired of people telling me I should go in to medicine — I liked math/physical science/engineering, I did not like working with cranky sick people), etc..

As soon as you start down the path of ‘MEN are (or should be) this and WOMEN are (or should be) that’, you’re lost. Nothing good comes from that path. Useful, instead, is ‘Look at all the great things out there to try. See what you like and what you’re good at.’ Maybe that means marching band rather than football team, or cooking rather than (just) eating, and so on. Fine. Whatever it is, though, have a go and see what happens. Related, society shouldn’t be telling you which ones you have to do, nor which ones you cannot do, merely because of your sex.

Jesus motherfucking christ, this fucking whiny-ass titty-baby the poor menz iz oppressed by the horrible laydeez shit is fucking nauseating. You motherfuckers are fucking pathetic. Sack the fuck up and get a fucking grip, for fuck’s sake. Your problems in life stem from the fact that you are a hapless ineffectual loser, not because of anything that women are doing. The likelihood is that if it weren’t for women saving your sorry ass time and time again, you wouldn’t even have fucking internet access to post your delusional bullshit.

That was a real book? Gee, I’m glad I’m not a moron. Even for its time (1970?) it was already decades out of date. Revisionist history: let’s pretend the WACs never existed, etc. Let’s see – the WACs built things that the boys used, they fixed things the boys needed fixing … That looks like the sort of book a religious ideologue would buy to brainwash their kids.

Uh, Physioprof, I hope you’re referring to mansa and/or Marc A. rather than me. If you do mean me, a bit a clarification on where I went astray would be a help.

MadScientist: it was late, but only by years, not decades, sadly. The WACs got brainwashed at the end of the war and somehow started believing that they were supposed to be, c.f., Donna Reed (vacuuming the house while wearing her pearls). Rosie the Riviter turned to Stepford Wife. 50s-mid60s were much worse on women’s equality than World War II. Major regression. I’m positive, though titles fail me at the moment, that there are a number of books about the regression. (Also the one in the 1930s vs. 1920s.)

“Jesus motherquacking christ, this quacking whiny-ass titty-baby the poor menz iz oppressed by the horrible laydeez shit is quacking nauseating. You motherquackers are quacking pathetic. Sack the quack up and get a quacking grip, for quack’s sake…”

Aww, real good intelligent answer, DW. You were “bored” by facts and sources. Sorry to hear you couldn’t hang. If you have an intelligent response (something more intelligent than “I’m bored” or “muther fucker this that,” I’d be glad to discuss/debate it. But your evasive, dodgy answer has nothing of substance whatsoever. In fact Physioprof had more substance that you with all his “fuck fuck fuck.”

You know what Marc A? I don’t give a pissy fit what you think, who you are, who you think you are and what you represent. I avoid people like you. And no, I don’t HAVE to debate you or have any discussions with you. Pity you think anyone owes you anything for all those facts (and anger).

Yeah, I know it was supposed to be satire, but it really, really failed. Because with satire you’re supposed to take the thing you’re satirizing and take it TOO FAR, i.e. Landover Baptist, not just restate beliefs held by an awful lot of the population as fact. Granted, as a “kid’s” book, it really couldn’t have gone far enough to really be successful satire.

I could see where it would be a useful teaching tool in the right hands. But for most people, I think it falls down as satire. When I was a grad student, I participated in some sort of “outreach to the elementary schools” thing my school did. And when we went to talk about women in history, and to try to encourage girls to be more interested in school, as we were talking with the kids, one little girl says, “Can I be an astronaut?” and without hesitation, one of her male classmates says, “Girls can’t be astronauts, my dad says so.” Most of the other women there with me were aghast, I just smiled and said, “You know, kiddo, there was a time when your Dad was right, but we’ve already had a couple of girl astronauts, can anyone name them?” I was very gratified that at least one little girl called out “Sally Ride.”

That was probably 8 years ago.

Although, I do love the “Girls are Heroines” illustration where the girl in the sunbonnet is whipping the team of horses on.

I had the disappointment of coming across this book in the early 90’s. My dad was a librarian and I discovered it while relabeling books during summer vacation. Upon seeing it, he tossed it out in disgust. We hoped that not too many kids were damaged by it.

“You know what Marc A? I don’t give a pissy fit what you think, who you are, who you think you are and what you represent. I avoid people like you. And no, I don’t HAVE to debate you or have any discussions with you. Pity you think anyone owes you anything for all those facts (and anger).”

Of course you don’t have to debate. And so you avoid it like the plague because you obviously can’t, so you resort to anger and reactionism and then ironically accuse *me* of having anger, even though I never expressed any anger at all. “I don’t give a pissy fit.” I’m impressed, DW! How typical of those who reactively dismiss the men’s rights movement and its cause without even knowing what they’re talking about. Avoid substance and attack the person. That way nobody can see your ignorance. Funny thing.

Actually I have a wonderful relationship PhysioProf and I gladly handle all my own laundry, cooking, etc. She also earns more than me. I wonder if you have anything at all of substance other than ad homs. Seriously, you and DW should get together and have a little pow wow of idiocy.

Oh! I forgot to mention this when I made my list of men’s rights movements growing worldwide. One of the largest African-American communities in the nation, representing over 200,000 (mostly) Black men, just asked Obama to create a White House Counsel on Men and Boys. See below. Oh those “whiny-ass motherfuckers” right “prof”? LOL! But then, prof, are you sure you’re not “projecting”?

ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY urges President Obama to establish White House Council on Men and Boys

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

April 17, 2009

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of the more than 200,000 men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., congratulations on your election and inauguration. The brothers of Alpha are encouraged by the promise of hope that your presidency inspires. While still in the early stage, your administration has already shown a commitment to improving the lives of children and families and to addressing inequities that permeate our society. Your recent executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls is certainly a sound example.

Today, I am asking you to consider creating a White House Council on Men and Boys.

Since being founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world. Through Alpha men such as Martin Luther King, Jr., John Hope Franklin, Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, Cornel West and many others, the fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the fight for civil and human rights and social change—for all Americans

Our mission is developing leaders and promoting brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities. A few examples of how Alpha has, and continues to, improve our society include our strategic partnerships with Big Brothers Big Sisters; Boy Scouts of America; March of Dimes; American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, and the American Cancer Society. Also, for more than three decades, we have worked to prevent unwanted pregnancy through our Project Alpha program which teaches teenaged-pregnancy prevention to young males. We also teach HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in our communities.

On the education front, Alpha has for years provided scholarships to deserving young men. We expanded in 2008 with the new Alpha Phi Alpha Charitable Foundation, thanks in part to a startup grant from former Massachusetts Senator, Brother Edward Brooke. And this year, we are implementing a new initiative, From the Highchair to Higher Education. Its primary focus is to provide boys, at the youngest age possible, the best opportunity to successfully make it through high school and college.

Mr. President, we are keenly aware of the challenges that face women and girls. However, we believe a focus must also be placed on men and boys. As a father of a six-year old son and an eight-year old daughter, like you I want to make sure that there are well-educated, responsible and community-oriented men for them to look up to as they grow and develop.

Boys are in far graver danger than at anytime. According to a 2006 report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 35 percent of black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26 percent in New York City. Only a few black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those who enter college, nationally, only 22 percent finish with a degree.

We strongly believe to adequately address the needs of men and boys on a national level, a White House Council on Men and Boys must be ordered. We are prepared to partner with the White House on this goal and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible to provide our ideas. Please feel free to reach me by phone or e-mail me at president@apa1906.net. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Men have a long history of oppression. We see that there are those who are very prejudiced against men to this day. It has long been a tactic of male role conditioning to shame men into their disposable roles. Apparently, exploiting male disposability is very profitable. Name calling, and belittling men for speaking up about the same things that women freely speak up about is no longer tolerable, even on this thread.

A Pentagon study published in March on the mental health of soldiers returning from deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan found that more than one- third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counseling. A statistic buried in the study: 23.6 percent of women reported a mental health concern compared with 18.6 percent of men.http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2755/context/archive

(currently, women are not even required by law to register for selective service, but even retarded or physically disabled men are, in addition to all the healthy ones)

94% of industrial deaths and accident (NIOSH)
(Even though murder is the leading workplace cause of death for women, a statistic often used by gender feminists, that number is only a percentage of the 6% of workplace deaths that women comprise. In other words, “a fraction of a small fraction.”)

Men are:

76% of homicides DOJ
80% of Suicides CDC

# Suicide took the lives of 30,622 people in 2001 (CDC 2004).
# Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for all U.S. men (Anderson and Smith 2003).
# 24,672 suicide deaths reported among men in 2001.http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm
24,672 / 30,622 = .8056952
(or in other words, over 80% of all suicide deaths in 2001 were male)

also:http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec15/ch205/ch205a.html
“Suicide ranks 11th among causes of death in the US, with 30,622 completed suicides in 2001. It is the 3rd leading cause of death among people 15 to 24 yr. Men ≥ 75 yr have the highest rate of death by suicide. Among all age groups, male deaths by suicide outnumber female deaths by 4:1.”

http://www.glennsacks.com/distraught_fathers_courthouse.htm
“The other most common suicide victims are divorced and/or estranged fathers like Derrick Miller. In fact, a divorced father is ten times more likely to commit suicide than a divorced mother, and three times more likely to commit suicide than a married father. According to Los Angeles divorce consultant Jayne Major:
“Divorced men are often devastated by the loss of their children. It’s a little known fact that in the United States men initiate only a small number of the divorces involving children. Most of the men I deal with never saw their divorces coming, and they are often treated very unfairly by the family courts.'”

A woman is the party filing for divorce in about 66% of divorce cases.http://www.pobronson.com/blog/2006/07/will-this-marriage-last-who-wants-out.html
“How often was it that many more of women wanted the divorce more than the men?
2/3. The same as the amount responsible for divorce filings. And yet another study of divorced couples found that the majority of divorced wives and husbands both agreed it was the wife who wanted out.”

Women receive custody in about 84% of child custody cases.

In the spring of 2002, an estimated
13.4 million parents had custody of
21.5 million children under 21 years of
age whose other parent lived somewhere
else. About 5 of every 6 custodial parents
were mothers (84.4 percent) and 1
in 6 were fathers (15.6 percent), proportions
statistically unchanged since 1994
(Table A).http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p60-225.pdf

The 2006 United States’ rate of incarceration of 751 inmates per 100,000 population is the highest reported rate in the world, well ahead of the Russian rate of 628 per 100,000.

93% of the prison population is male with over 60% having no High School education. America has now passed Russia as the country that has the largest percentage of its population incarcerated, yet we still claim to be the freest country on earth.

The number of persons on probation and parole has been growing dramatically along with institutional populations. There are now 7.2 million Americans incarcerated or on probation or parole, an increase of more than 290 percent since 1980.

Most of them had charges of rape against them.http://www.innocenceproject.org/
As we see in the Duke Lacrosse rape case fiasco, false accusers are rarely prosecuted and when they are it is only as a misdemeanor (at most), while rape itself is vigorously prosecuted as a felony.

One attorney speaking at premiere for the movie, After Innocence, estimates that there are between 20,000 and 100,000 wrongly convicted still in prison.

We hear a lot about the historical oppression of women’s voting rights, but few if any women who were born in the 20th century were every without the right to vote in their lifetime, upon reaching legal voting age. On the other hand, around 2400 hundred California men (42% of CA men killed in Vietnam) gave their life for their country without being allowed by their country to vote. The exact number is 2,381. Four of the twelve Iwo Jimo flag raisers died for their country without their country ever allowing them the right to vote.http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/a-b/blumhorst/2005/blumhorst052805.htm

http://www.thewall-usa.com/names.asp
“The youngest Vietnam KIA is believed to be Dan Bullock USMC, at 15 years old.
At least 5 men killed in Vietnam were 16 years old.
At least 12 men killed in Vietnam were 17 years old.
There are 120 persons who listed foreign countries as their home of record.
At least 25,000 of those killed were 20 years old or younger.
The oldest man killed was 62 years old.”

If you do a full count on all the men in the 20th century who died for their country without being allowed to vote the numbers will be staggering.

In America there are over 270 women’s commissions, but only one for men in New Hampshire.

There are over 700 Women’s Studies programs on colleges and universities throughout the United States teaching thousands or tens of thousands of classes from the gender feminist perspective, but not one program or class, teaching men’s studies from the masculist perspective.

Men are a significant percentage of domestic violence (26% of intimate partner homicides), yet are denied service at most tax payer funded domestic violence shelters. In contrast, women get every veteran’s benefit a man does, yet comprise less than 3% of combat deaths or casualties and a woman makes the cover of Time magazine (person of the year/2003 standing in front of two men.http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2003/200312225a.jpg

It appears to me American men are routinely treated like 2nd class citizens in their own country. CDC lists male victims of domestic violence at more than 34%, but men injured in Iraq (and all other men) are by law in California excluded from domestic violence shelter services. They would have a lot of trouble getting in a CA shelter if some evening the little misses puts a frying pan to their head. Only one shelter in Lancaster, CA accepts men and it has been extensively harassed for doing so.

Someone online pointed out in a post that some people say breast cancer is a greater concern in women than prostate cancer in men based on reported deaths overall. Are we considering that men today die on average 6 years sooner than women? I read somewhere that around 1920 the death rates were roughly equal. The death rates for prostate and breast cancer are similar, but because men die of other things more frequently-accidents ,war, heart disease etc., there are fewer men left to die of prostate cancer. “This would be akin to saying people from a nation like Zimbabwe are immune to Alzheimer’s- but in fact they die of other things before they can get old enough to contract Alzheimer’s.”

The Socialist/Communist wage gap myth based on the “comparable worth” paradigm:

Not too long ago, legendary adman David Ogilvy chided his peers for talking down to women. He berated those who ignored women or discounted them, misconstruing men’s higher paychecks to mean greater spending clout. And he was right. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, women–who comprise just over 51 percent of the U.S. population, making them the largest consumer segment in the country–control six trillion dollars in buying power annually. Statistics show that:

Women make 88 percent of all U.S. retail purchases. Some experts even predict that, by 2020, women will control most of the money in America.

Women control 88 percent of all purchases.

Women handle 75 percent of family finances. 43 percent of those with assets over $500,000 are women.

One out of every 11 women in America owns a business.

Women influence two out of every three of the 3 trillion dollars spent in the U.S. each year!

Men die on average about 5 years earlier than women, but no compensation is made in the Social Security System’s retirement age for this disparity.

Exactly which areas those were, he couldn’t say…”
How about equal rights in parenting, domestic violence policies, criminal sentencing, paternity, forced labor, military conscription, public health policies, genital integrity, false accusations, reproductive rights, and equal rights across the board?
‘How come you never talk about men? You don’t blog about areas where men are underrepresented!’ Exactly which areas those were, he couldn’t say…” They also are underrepresented in enrollment on college and university campuses based on their numbers in the general population.

The DVD is entitled, Scottsboro An American Tragedy.
Here is the quote (exactly) I was thinking of:
“The protection of white womanhood, it might be the pivot around all Southern culture. The 5,000 people who are lynched from 1880 to 1940, most of those are cases of black men accused of raping, or sexually assaulting white women.” – Robin Kelly, Historian, African-American man
From the back cover of the DVD box:
“In 1931, two white women stepped from a boxcar in Paint Rock, Alabama to make a shocking accusation: they had been raped by nine black teenagers on the train.”
and
“- a poor white woman whose lie lends her respectability…”
PBS Home Video
American Experience, a production of WGBH Boston
Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary
Scottsboro An American Tragedy
The case that sparked the civil rights movement
2001 WGBH Educational Foundation
2005 Artwork PBS

Between 1890 and 1917, two hundred thirty thousand (230,000) railroad workers were killed. In 1920 there were 2, 000, 000 railroad workers. One of the most dangerous jobs was “brakeman.” Each car had to be stopped manually and it was the brakeman’s job to stop four or five cars. The brakeman walked on top of the RR cars and turned a wheel, putting the brakes “on” for each car. It was not unheard of for a brakeman to be thrown from the top of a RR car.

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control)
80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average. (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report)
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes – 10 times the average. (Rainbows for All God’s Children)
70% of youths in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Sept. 1988)
85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Fulton Co. Georgia, Texas Dept. of Correction)

I think you have two camps of women. Those women who are fully confident in themselves and their abilities. Those women who seek to advance themselves and feel they need not lean on a man for their success. Those women who see a relationship with a man as just that, and if it does not work out, they bounce back and move on. These I call the WINNER women.
Then you have the BITTER women. And the field here is wide. These are the women who want their cake and want to eat it to. These are women who on one hand want a man to support them, yet also want the PROMISES of feminism. They want to be housewives, yet do nothing in the home while their husband works day and night. They expect to succeed and advance in life, yet spend most of their time getting their hair and nails done, talking on the phone, hanging out with their friends, getting degrees in sociology..they don’t apply themselves yet expect to succeed. These are the women who go into a relationship with ulterior motives and when it does not work out, they get mad. These are the women who can not take responsibility for their actions but rather choose to blame everyone else ESPECIALLY MEN for all that is wrong in their lives. These are the women who were DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL and expect men to come at their beck and call, yet when they run across a man who is not WEAK and will not pander to their every little desire, they get mad. These are women who get into a relaionship with the notion of NO GIVE BUT ALL TAKE. They expect the man to do everything, and they only contribute when they feel like it. These are the women who feel entitiled to be treated like a princess, when they have absolutely no notion of what it means to treat others rightly.
In my younger life, I WASTED my time with the second group of LOSER women. It gave me great headaches. Fortunately I wisened up and now will only deal with the first group of women.
To all men out there, I advice you to do the same. Too often, we as men are drawn to the LOSER women..because they are the CUTE (not necessarily better looking) ones. They have the cute little attitude about them, and initially will act like the first group of WINNER women. However, as soon as they’ve got you in their snare, their true nature becomes evident. Take the time to know a woman before you even make any kind of commitment and you will save yourself untold misery.

Nicely researched comments Marc A and Ray. The men’s movement is still fairly new, and it naturally stirs up controversy. Don’t let the naysayers get you down. You guys have done your homework. If anyone is interested in reading more about the masculist movement, check out Warren Farrell’s international bestselling book: “The Myth of Male Power.” It discusses how men are objectified as disposable “success-objects” and how men are stereotyped as lacking emotional intelligence. It is sad that about 4x as many men commit suicide as women. It is also sad that the vast majority of the homeless are men and that over 90% of job deaths are men as well.

The men’s movement (or masculism) is nothing new. It has been around since Warren Farrell published his international bestseller: “The Myth of Male Power.” The book discusses how men are objectified as disposable “success objects” and cannon fodder. It also discusses how men comprise the vast majority of the prison population, suicide, homeless, and job deaths. How sad.

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About Sheril Kirshenbaum

Sheril Kirshenbaum is a research scientist with the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy where she works on projects to enhance public understanding of energy issues as they relate to food, oceans, and culture. She is involved in conservation initiatives across levels of government, working to improve communication between scientists, policymakers, and the public.
Sheril is the author of The Science of Kissing, which explores one of humanity's fondest pastimes. She also co-authored Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future with Chris Mooney, chosen by Library Journal as one of the Best Sci-Tech Books of 2009 and named by President Obama's science advisor John Holdren as his top recommended read. Sheril contributes to popular publications including Newsweek, The Washington Post, Discover Magazine, and The Nation, frequently covering topics that bridge science and society from climate change to genetically modified foods. Her writing is featured in the anthology The Best American Science Writing 2010.
In 2006 Sheril served as a legislative Knauss science fellow on Capitol Hill with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) where she was involved in energy, climate, and ocean policy. She also has experience working on pop radio and her work has been published in Science, Fisheries Bulletin, Oecologia, and Issues in Science and Technology. In 2007, she helped to found Science Debate; an initiative encouraging candidates to debate science research and innovation issues on the campaign trail. Previously, Sheril was a research associate at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and has served as a Fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and as a Howard Hughes Research Fellow. She has contributed reports to The Nature Conservancy and provided assistance on international protected area projects.
Sheril serves as a science advisor to NPR's Science Friday and its nonprofit partner, Science Friday Initiative. She also serves on the program committee for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She speaks regularly around the country to audiences at universities, federal agencies, and museums and has been a guest on such programs as The Today Show and The Daily Rundown on MSNBC.
Sheril is a graduate of Tufts University and holds two masters of science degrees in marine biology and marine policy from the University of Maine. She co-hosts The Intersection on Discover blogs with Chris Mooney and has contributed to DeSmogBlog, Talking Science, Wired Science and Seed. She was born in Suffern, New York and is also a musician. Sheril lives in Austin, Texas with her husband David Lowry.
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